Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities The all Darwyn Cooke (deceased) thread

Excited and...reserved. I take issue with those complaining about the "complainers."

You only get one chance to do some things right and this is one of them. Frontier was epic. If 70 minutes can do "epic" then fine, but I find it hard to believe.

Just knowing there was thought of cutting the Wonder Women scenes is enough to put a fan of the work on edge. Who was making that decision? Certainly not someone who had any understanding of the purpose of the work. Cutting the Wonder Women and Lois scenes (though there were a couple Lois scenes I thought odd) would not only have turned the film into a testifest but would have taken away major exposition from Superman. Most of what he was in Frontier was seen I thought, through those two characters.

My biggest concern would be marketing making creative decisions. That bodes ill for minor characters and teams. Can you imagine Frontier having the same impact without the opening scenes?

I don't.

Most of the complainers have decided it won't be any good simply becasue of it's length. They aren't just having reservations: They are stating that it can't possibly be any good now, which they can't possibly know.

By the way... Cooke writing a futuristic fairy tale with giant robots... I'm totally there!

Regarding the Comic Festival Book that Cramer displayed the cover of. Cooke has a four page story in it which is a metaphorical comic book elegy.

I couldn't figure out who the architect was, but he identified the subject as <span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Alex Toth</span></span>, one of his artistic idols. I felt kinda dumb re-reading it

Cooke's pic of Power Girl for the cover of The Comics Journal

She looks more gorgeous there than she has in the last 15 years. Of course Cooke would get it right when so many others have failed utterly.

TVshowsondvd.com has a look at the box art for the single-disc and two-disc regular release of the "New Frontier" movie. Yup, a two-disc set, too! But no word on what's on the second disc yet.

But if the movie is half as good as the two-disc box looks, I'll be a happy camper.

Comics Worth Reading has a contest to win one of 3 New Frontier DVDs. (I'm probably diminishing my chances by posting here, but that's my generous spirit. )

Ohmigod, that was sooooooo good! I got the 2-disc set... haven't watched the extras yet, but the main event was so awesome! It was just exactly what I wanted it to be.

The New Frontier comic came out today. I have to say... the story with Wonder Woman and Black Canary taking on the New Frontier/DCU version of a well known real world chauvinist was very entertaining indeed.

Cooke announced at Megacon that he will be doing a Jonah Hex story sometime this year.

Other than that, there's a new project that is still hush-hush right now.

Until I hear otherwise, I'm going to believe that this a secret Cooke Legion project! Yay!

Still a great fan of all things Cooke, I read his new crime story, Parker the Hunter. This is based on Donald Westlake's character Parker, a thief and all-around criminal when necessary.

It's a bit odd, but you really do end up by sympathizing with Parker. He's heartless and totally self-centered, but he's a straight shooter (of the criminal variety), says what he means and means what he says. And when somebody does him wrong, he simply restores the balance - um, usually by killing the person. But he lets you know he's going to kill you and he's quick about it!

The artwork is beautiful, just a few monotones, black, white and gray-blue. This story takes place in the 1962 and Cooke really captures the feeling. I don't know if there's anything anachronistic, but I doubt it. The cars, the furniture, the women's dresses - all perfect.

I'm really looking forward to getting this. For whatever reason I thought it was only available in hardcover, and more of a paperback kind of guy. So now that I know its in TPB, I'll definitely be buying it the next time I make a TPB order.

From what I've seen, the art looks tremendous as always. I'm still a huge fan of all things Cooke and I will go out of my way to buy his work no matter what the story is about.

I believe the last Cooke comic I bought was his Jonah Hex issue, which was absolutely fantastic.

It may be still only in HC; that's what I got, big spender that I am!

My Comic Book Review Month pace took a brief pause this week because I purposely slowed things down and immersed myself in Darwyn Cooke’s Parker: the Hunter, which FC mentions above. It’s a comic adaptation of Donald Westlake’s classic first Parker novel (under the pen name Richard Stark). I actually went out of my way to pace myself and really drink this in—and boy am I glad I did. It is an absolute masterpiece.

Seriously: when you read reviews of movies and books and stuff and critics say “it is a Triumph!” you never really know what that means, right? I do now—because this is a triumph! If this cost $100 I would still recommend it to every Legion Worlder.

I’ll be up front and say I think Cooke is a genius. I absolutely love his work and find his art just incredibly appealing; I’d probably buy anything he produced. But I think he really outdid himself here. His panoramic views of New York City are just breathtaking. His depictions of people are terrific. And his pacing is so tight and deliberate it sucks you right in—the entire ending sequence from the railway to the construction sight was so suspenseful I thought I was watching a great noir movie from the 40’s. Hell, it was better than that.

Where Cooke really excels is the inks/shadows he applies to set the mood and atmosphere. I kind remember the last time I felt so overwhelmed by it (an in a great way).

I’ve never read any of Donald Westlake’s novels before but I’m thinking maybe its time I did. I know Ed Brubaker says that Parker is his favorite of all fictional criminals in all mediums. I know I’ll be getting all of Cooke’s adaptations.

One bad thing is I saw the “only okay” Mel Gibson movie Payback about 10+ years ago which I didn’t realize is an adaptation of this as well. That meant I had a rough outline of the plot. It was only because of Cooke’s immense skill that the plot became basically secondary to my enjoyment—I was much more interested in a master unleashing his talent upon the readers.

I’m not putting this one away anytime soon. I’ll be browsing through it constantly I suspect.

Note: Somebody (read: Cobie) bug me until I pick this up.

I will do! It will restore your faith in modern comic books. I promise.

I snagged the Parker: The Hunter book off of eBay, a gently-used copy that cost me just over $12 including shipping. This purchase, of course, was prompted by Des's glowing review above. Can't exactly expect him to eat up all my recommendations without a little quid pro quo, right?

That said, I haven't read it yet. But I'm already struck by a couple of things:

1) I was surprised this wasn't a full-color comic as Des makes no mention of it. It's kind of a monochromatic darkish blue throughout. This looks to be used to good effect, however, and suits what is the noirish feel the story must have. It certainly gives the book its own distinct look and seems to work well with Cooke's style.

2) The size is smaller than expected, closer to that of a mid-sized paperback prose book than to a standard comic book dimension. This looks to enhance its feel as more of a book read than a comic read. This isn't to suggest the art is minimilistic or undersized itself but definitely gives it a different feel from what you'd expect. This puppy has over 200 pages and the size emphasizes thatyou're getting a lot of story and art for your money. This is literally a graphic novel, possibly moreso than any comics work to claim itself as such and the format bears that out.

Anyhow, I plan to read it sometime soon when I have the time and space to give it the proper attention. Looking forward to it!

Definitely thrilled you picked this up Lardy and can't wait for your review!

You're right that both the colors and size are really used to full effect within and enhance the noirish style of the storyline. Cooke seems to have though about EVERYTHING possible in the presentation of this work, using every thing he could to enhance the style and substance.

Just got Jonah Hex #50. Can't wait to read it.

Last night, I read Book One of Parker: The Hunter. By Book One I mean the GN's literally broken down into three or four chapters, and Book One's about the first 50 pages. Wow! This is already a tour de force! I know it helps that Cooke already had what is obviously some superior source material to work with, but WOW!

What is really a sign of Cooke's great talent is all the information and fluidity of storytelling he puts into a copious number of pages that have no dialogue or captions. The first 27 pages have only two, I think, with any captions or dialogue. But a LOT is happening in those pages. It's a masterful sequence detailing Parker charging into New York by foot like a man possessed. Silently, we see him go about his business and get himself ready for what he needs to do using some criminal techniques. Throughout most of the sequence he's a faceless form of nature until Cooke finally gives a full-page reveal of the man looking in the mirror towards the end of the sequence.

It's thoroughly-involving, mostly-silent sequence of pages that are packed with information--probably the best silent pages I've EVER seen in a comic! Cooke deserves an Eisner for that alone!

The rest of Book One is equally engaging as we learn a lot more about this force of nature we've been watching and exactly what he's so driven about. Overall, it took me about an HOUR to read book one, and it was about half-dialog-less! Granted I read these a little slower than the average bloke, but if you read this the right way, absorbing all the detail, I don't think it should take you a whole lot less time.

This is some honest-to-god comic noir that I'd put even above Brubaker and Philips' stuff on Criminal at this point. Yes, Cooke has the benefit of adapting existing material, but this is already a seminal work of art--and I've still got over 150 pages to go!!!

I agree--this is hands down the best "comic noir" I've ever read. Glad you love it, Lardy! I knew you would. There's just no denying the sheer brillance of Cooke in everything he does, but this especially.